Jake spouting nonsense about literature

There's so much commentary to be made about the content of the chapters we've read so far, but this time I wanted to aimlessly ruminate about something tangent to all that.  I've always been getting caught up in this while reading and thinking about the book, and I suppose I want to articulate what's been bugging me throughout this whole unit. Invisible Man is one of the weirdest books I've ever read in terms of tone, voice, and general writing style. I feel like I'm on drugs when I read this book, but without the high. I don't even know what being on drugs is like, but I have a constant sense of being mystified, never being on top of things, never fully grasping the meaning of anything. I keep reverting to two words when describing large swaths of writing in this book: "fever dream." Am I just projecting my stress of not effectively keeping pace with some of the readings? No. There are truly many dreamlike qualities to the writing. And many scene...

Welcome back to comp-lit ... comp uter aring litera cy ture. The lit pieces of lit compared today:     Why did I decide to write about these? Well, I started off by thinking, Hmm, these pieces of writing somehow have a similar vibe . Then, what exactly is this vibe?  Both Native Son and "Three-Legged Chairs" have attached to them this persistent, nagging feeling like a rock in your gut. What's the right word for it? Desperation? Emptiness? Anguish? Torment? Hopelessness? It's safe to say that all of those words and many more factor into that feeling . But let's unpack it using those words to provide us some structure. Desperation : The fear within Bigger driving all of his actions manifests itself in his crimes during periods of desperation. Bigger lashes out at Gus out of desperation, having found no other way to escape the predicament of having to rob a white-owned store. Bigger's murder of Mary was an act of desperation to keep Mrs. Dalton from discovering...